Suspect Identified in Alleged Gay Dating App Rape & Robbery

Philadelphia police are asking the public’s help in finding a man they identified who allegedly raped, beat and robbed a Canadian tourist he met on popular gar dating app Grindr, Wednesday. CSN Philly reports.

Philly police detectives have identified Douglas Spady a.k.a. Douglas Casey, 26, of the 5200 block of Cottage Street, Philadelphia from surveillance images where he is seen struggling with the victim.

The victim is a 34-year-old man from Canada who met Spady on Grindr. The expected tryst turned into a harrowing experience that included a sexual assault at gunpoint and $3,000 in theft, local the ABC affiliate reports.

The victim allegedly invited Spady around 1:30 P.M. on Wednesday and invited him to his hotel room inside a Hilton Home 2 Suites.

Upon arrival, the suspect held the man at gunpoint and sexually assaulted him.

According to the police report, the suspect also forced the man to buy him four $500 Visa gift cards and took him to four separate ATMs where he made him withdraw $200.

The victim briefly subdued the suspect at a Walnut Street bar and was able to escape.

Images of the suspect were captured on surveillance cameras inside the bar.

"The whole thing was just a giant blur. I was scared and I kept thinking if I just do what he says, then he’ll just go away," the victim told local NBC affiliate. "I was afraid to say anything. I was afraid of what was going to happen."

Wednesday’s incident in Philadelphia isn’t the first time Grindr has been used to turn gay men into crime victims. In December 2013, EDGE reported that three homeless men used Grindr to meet a 71-year-old man in Michigan before they allegedly robbed and killed him.

Forty gay couples in South Dakota applied to be married during the first month following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized such unions across the country, according to data provided by the state Department of Health.